Developments in the title field have been greatly motivated by the studies of transactinoid elements; selected experiments and their results are presented for visualization. Primarily, the book is about the physico-chemical basis of the experimental methods and techniques which are or can be used for compounds of all heavy metals; about evaluation of the desorption energies from the original gas-solid chromatography data; and about concepts and approaches which allow to estimate bulk properties of the compounds even from experiments with a few short-lived atoms. The book attempts for the first time critical discussion of the state of art from a coherent point of view to help better understanding. It was written both for the newcomers to the field and experts, its goal is also to stimulate wider use of the advantageous gas phase techniques for common elements.
From the reviews: "This is an interesting and well-prepared book. ... it covers, only the gas-phase chemistry of elements of atomic numbers greater than Z = 103. As a result, it will be of interest to ... readers of JACS. ... In the six brief chapters, the limited data are well evaluated and presented." (Gregory R. Choppin, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 130 (42), 2008)